Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 16 September 2017

::National::

Survey of street vendors in Bengaluru

• Street vendors in the city Bengaluru have won a long battle for official recognition. The first ever survey of street vendors, which will eventually give them an official ID card.

• The survey aims to enrol an estimated two lakh street vendors by September 25.

Pandavan Para being destroyed due to quarrying

• The Kerala High Court directed the Thiruvananthapuram district administration to ensure that no quarrying operations were carried out within a 500-m radius of Pandavan Para.

• The interim directive was issued on a public interest writ petition filed by S. Unnikrishnan. According to him, quarrying operations were being undertaken illegally on the areas near Pandavan Para.

• Pandavan Para, which is said to have been used by the Pandavas as a hideout during their exile, had been made up of ‘Krishnashila’, which are used for stone carving.

• The State government had notified it as a protected archaeological monument in September 1987.

• The Archaeology Department had found that the writings on the cave wall were 5,000 years old. Pandavan Para was being destroyed owing to illegal quarrying.

• Though the Archaeology Department had decided to protect 3.15 acres of land surrounding the Pandavan Para, illegal quarrying and theft of Krishnashila were still taking place in the land and in the nearby government puramboke land, alleged the petitioner.

After Aadhar -Pan cardlink now Centre plans for Aadhar-driving licence link

• It will help check the menace of multiple licences

• Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that after linking Aadhaar to PAN cards, the Union government would now link it with driving licences as well.

• Aadhaar was a safe and secure tool for good governance and empowerment.Aadhaar represented digital identity, not physical identity, and that digital identity confirmed physical identity, Mr. Prasad said, adding that the government had linked Aadhaar to PAN card to stop money laundering.

• Reiterating the commitment of the Union government towards providing affordable and inclusive technology to the masses, Mr. Prasad said digital India must help create an inclusive society.

Rohingya issue

• Assam and Manipur have placed their forces on alert

• The Centre is yet to spell out its stand on undocumented Rohingya but State governments in Assam and Manipur have asked their police, especially in the border districts, to “push back anyone who tries to cross the border.”

• While Assam shares a 262 km border with Bangladesh, three other northeastern States — Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland are also front-line States. The governments in Assam and Manipur have issued “alerts to mount extra vigil in the border areas.”

• Assam Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal is believed to have conveyed to the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel and top officials of the State police to “push back if any Rohingya family tried to cross over the Bangladesh border, seeking refuge.”

• The Manipur government, too has instructed the police to crack down in borders towns like Moreh that routinely see brisk cross-border trading. It is not uncommon to find Myanmarese traders residing in these areas on a temporary basis.

• The Rohingya a minority Muslim community in the Rakhine state of Myanmar on the border with Bangladesh have been forced to flee the country following periodic ethnic clashes and crackdown by Myanmar’s Army. The latest bout of violence erupted last month, following an attack on a police post.

• Around 3,00,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh since the August 25 crackdown on their settlements.

Institutions created by Act of Parliament do not need FCRA licence

• The HRD Ministry clarified that the institutions created through an Act of Parliament do not need an FCRA licence to receive foreign funds.

• The Home Ministry has cancelled the FCRA licences of several hundred organisations, including the Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and IIT Delhi, for failing to file annual returns for five consecutive years.

• Institutions created through an Act of Parliament are exempted from filing returns as they are covered under the annual government audit.

• Citing Section 50 of FCRA 2010, the official said the statutory bodies created though Central or state Acts are exempt.

Urban Affairs Ministry to borrow from market for infra development

• To break the vicious cycle of low performance leading to low budgetary allocation, the Urban Affairs Ministry is planning to go for market borrowings to incentivise good performance by the States.

• To overcome the severe infrastructure deficit accumulated over long years, a huge order of investments is required. To meet various contingencies and to ensure fund availability to meet the targets under the new urban mission, Urban Affairs Ministry is thinking of mobilising resources from the market.

• The concept, according to a senior Ministry official, stems from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-era Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, in which several projects remained incomplete when the Mission was wound up in 2014, primarily due to slow pace of execution and corresponding low provisioning of Central support.

Blue Whale game

• The Supreme Court asked the government to respond to a petition for an immediate direction to ban online game ‘Blue Whale Challenge, which is suspected to be behind the deaths or attempted suicides of teenagers and young adults hooked to it.

• A Bench, led by the Chief Justice of India, issued notice to the government on a petition by advocate C.R. Jaya Sukin, representing another lawyer N.S. Ponnaiah, who wanted the government to take immediate steps to spread awareness about the dangers of playing the game and end its availability online. The court asked Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal to assist the court.

• It is argued before the Bench that the government, till now, had not taken sufficient steps even as the number of cases of self-inflicted injuries and suicides were increasing.

• The petition said the game had spread its tentacles across the cities and was enticing even school students to play.

• The game goads young people into killing themselves. The blue whale on-line game encourages people to take part in increasingly dangerous harmful dares that finally culminate in instructions by the administrators to kill themselves.

States to pay compensation to the kin of those died unnatural jail death

• The Supreme Court directed the Chief Justices of all High Courts to register petitions suomotu to identify the kin of prisoners who died unnatural deaths from 2012 and order the States to award them compensation.

• It is important for the Centre and the State governments to realise that persons who suffer an unnatural death in a prison are also victims sometimes of a crime and sometimes of negligence and apathy or both. There is no reason at all to exclude their kin from receiving compensation only because the victim is a criminal,” a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Dipak Gupta observed.

• Normally, the National and State Human Rights Commissions award compensations in cases of custodial torture and deaths. However, compliance by State governments is low as these commissions do not exercise any power of contempt.

• Besides, the States go for a long-drawn appeal in the High Courts and later on in the Supreme Court, if necessary.

• This judgment is significant as the High Court will now directly award compensation and ensure compliance by the States.

• The Supreme Court referred to its judgment as a voice of the victims and an end to the silence of the dead.

• The court said though laws had been made for payment of compensation to victims of crime, those in power had turned their back on the families of prisoners who had died unnatural deaths in custody. Human rights in a welfare state is not dependent on the status of the person – whether he is a criminal or a victim.

• The payment from the year 2012 was chosen because National Crime Records Bureau has records of unnatural deaths only from that year. The judgment came on a letter addressed to the apex court in 2013 by its former Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti on the deplorable conditions of 1,382 prisons in the country.

• The court put the Union Women and Child Development Ministry on a December 31 deadline to formulate procedures for tabulating children who died unnatural deaths in custody or in child care institutions.

::INTERNATIONAL::

Terror attack in London

• Terror attack with IED during rush hour triggers mass panic at railway station

• Britain faced its fifth terrorism incident in 2017 as an improvised explosive device triggered an explosion on a rush-hour tube train at Parsons Green in southwest London injuring at least 22 people and triggering mass panic at the station. Unconfirmed reports said 29 people were injured.

• Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of the emergency COBRA committee, as Britain’s terror threat remained at severe, meaning a terror attack was highly likely.

• The Metropolitan police urged members of the public to remain calm and alert and for those who had images of the scene to upload them on a police website.

• The explosion took place at around 8.20 in the morning when the device on the district line tube train, travelling from southwest London to Paddington went off, creating what witnesses on the train described as a “fireball.”

• Images circulating on social media appeared to show a white bucket within a supermarket bag. One witness, who suffered burns on his scalp, spoke of others who were badly burnt, while others spoke of the panic that ensued after the incident as, after the doors were quickly opened, people attempted to exit the station through its single narrow stairwell.

• Blast on the London Tube highlights the challenge facing large metropolitan centres
  blast at London Tube that injured at least 22 people highlighted the challenge facing large metropolitan centres, amid a new wave of terror attacks, some of which appear to be carried out by lone agents, often using low-tech weapons such as vehicles, knives or home made devices.

• The incident, fifth terror attack this year in Britain, is also likely to reignite the domestic debate regarding funding of emergency services in the country, amid austerity cutbacks to resources and constraints on pay — issues that were raised by the Labour Party following previous attacks.

• This attack comes 12 years after 52 people were killed on terrorist bombings on London buses and tubes, and after the March attack on Westminster Bridge and outside the Houses of Parliament that killed five people.

• Less than a month after the attack on the Ariana Grande Concert in Manchester in May, 11 people were killed in another attack around London Bridge station. In June, a man was killed outside the Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. Nineteen terrorist plots have been foiled in Britain since June 2013, while 379 people were arrested for terrorism related offences across the country in the twelve months to June.

Nawaz Sharif’s review pleadismissed by Pakistan Supreme Court

• The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed the review petition filed by ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif against his disqualification.

• A five-member bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa rejected the arguments of the lawyers for Mr. Sharif and his children Hussain, Hassan and Maryam Nawaz that the earlier judgment of July 28 by the court was based on grounds that were not raised by the petitioners.

• Mr. Sharif was declared disqualified for “not being truthful and honest” and for concealing information about a Dubai-based company Capital FZE owned by his son Mr. Hussain.

• He was the chairman of the board of directors but denied receiving any financial benefits.

• The Supreme Court also asked top anti-corruption body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), to file corruption cases against the former ruling family.

• Subsequently, the NAB filed four cases against the Sharifs in the accountability court in Islamabad. The court has also issued summons to them to appear on September 19.

• The Sharifs are now facing charges of failing to produce paper trail of their assets allegedly stashed abroad.

• The assets, which include four expensive apartments in Central London, were purchased through money which was allegedly laundered from Pakistan.

• Panama papers released last year claimed that the former Prime Minister’s family used offshore accounts to purchase the property.

North Korea fires a ballistic missile over Japan

• North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan and into the Pacific, responding to new UN sanctions with its furthest-ever missile flight in what analysts called a demonstration of its ability to target Guam.

• The launch, from near Pyongyang, came after the United Nations Security Council imposed an eighth set of measures on the isolated country following its sixth nuclear test earlier this month. The blast was by far its largest to date and Pyongyang said it was a hydrogen bomb small enough to fit onto a missile.

• In New York, the Security Council called an emergency meeting and UN chief Antonio Guterres said talks on the crisis would be held on the sidelines of the General Assembly next week.

• The U.S. Pacific Command confirmed that rocket was an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) and said it did not pose a threat to North America or to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, which Pyongyang has threatened to bracket with “enveloping fire.”

• Seoul’s Defence Ministry said it probably travelled around 3,700 km and reached a maximum altitude of 770 km.

• Millions of Japanese were jolted awake by blaring sirens and emergency text message alerts.

• The missile was said to have overflown the U.S. ally for around two minutes.

• Beijing condemned the launch but said it was not to blame for the crisis.

• In response to the launch, South Korea’s military immediately carried out a ballistic missile drill of its own, with the defence ministry saying it took place while the North’s rocket was still airborne.

CULTURE

Golden throne assembled ahead of Dasara

• The throne is brought out only during Dasara and assembled in the Amba Vilas section for khas durbar

• In the run-up to the Navaratri festival to be celebrated by members of the Wadiyar family, the golden throne which plays a significant part in their ceremonies, was assembled.

• The throne, which is dismantled and placed in the strongroom under security throughout the year, is brought out only during Dasara and assembled in the Amba Vilas section for khas durbar.

• It was out under the supervision of the priests and entailed the involvement of 15 persons from Gejjagalli, who are traditionally engaged for this task.

• The throne comprises three parts, including the main seat, a staircase, and the golden umbrella.

• There are various theories about the origin of the throne and as per one legend, it belonged to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata fame. It was brought from Hastinapura to Penugonda and was lost to posterity until it was retrieved in 1336 A.D. by Vidyaranya who was the royal preceptor to the founders of the Vijayanagar empire.

• It was transferred to the Wadiyars who were the governors to the Vijayanagar rulers after the fall of the empire. But as per historical accounts, it was gifted to ChikkadevarajaWadiyar in 1700 A.D. by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

• The golden throne is open to the public only during the Dasara and is shifted to the strongroom after the completion of the festivities.

::SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY::

The 20-year journey of NASA’s Cassini comes to an end

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s $3.9-billion Cassini spacecraft ended its 20-year-long ground-breaking journey with a fiery plunge into the Saturn’s crushing atmosphere, beaming back never-before-seen images of the ringed planet and its mysterious moons until the last moment.

• Operators deliberately made Cassini dive into the gas giant to ensure that the planet’s moons remain pristine for future exploration. No spacecraft has ever ventured so close to the planet before, NASA said.

• After 20 years in space, NASA’s famed Cassini spacecraft made its final death plunge into Saturn, ending a storied mission that scientists say taught us nearly everything we know about Saturn today and transformed the way we think about life elsewhere in the solar system.

• Cassini, an international project that cost $3.9 billion and included scientists from 27 nations, disintegrated as it dove into Saturn’s atmosphere at a speed of 1,20,700 kmph.

• Cassini’s final contact with Earth came at 7:55 am EDT (5:25 p.m. in India). Its descent into Saturn’s atmosphere began about an hour and a half earlier, but the signal took that long to reach Earth because of the vast distance.

• Cassini’s plunge into the ringed gas giant the furthest planet visible from Earth with the naked eye came after the spacecraft ran out of rocket fuel after a journey of some 7.9 billion km.

• Its well-planned demise was a way to prevent any damage to Saturn’s ocean-bearing moons Titan and Enceladus, which scientists want to keep pristine for future exploration because they may contain some form of life.

• Three other spacecraft have flown by Saturn Pioneer 11 in 1979, followed by Voyager 1 and 2 in the 1980s.

• But none have studied Saturn in such detail as Cassini, named after the French-Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who discovered in the 17th century that Saturn had several moons and a gap between its rings.

• Cassini’s discovery of ocean worlds at Titan and Enceladus changed everything, shaking views to the core about surprising places to search for potential life beyond Earth.”

• Cassini launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1997, then spent seven years in transit followed by 13 years orbiting Saturn.

• In that time, it discovered six more moons around Saturn, three-dimensional structures towering above Saturn’s rings, and a giant storm that raged across the planet for nearly a year.

• In 2005, the Cassini orbiter released a lander called Huygens on Titan, marking the first and only such landing in the outer solar system, on a celestial body beyond the asteroid belt.

• The spacecraft is also credited with discovering icy geysers erupting from Enceladus, and eerie hydrocarbon lakes made of ethane and methane on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Huygens was a joint project of the European Space Agency, Italian Space Agency and NASA.

Astra -BVRAAM

• Astra, the indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air missile (BVRAAM), moved one step closer to induction into the Air Force after successfully completing development trials.

• The final development flight trials of Astra BVRAAM were successfully conducted over the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of Chandipur in Odisha during September 11-14. A total of seven trials were conducted against Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA) successfully.

• The missile was tested in various missions and all sub-systems, including the indigenous radio frequency seeker, and met all parameters. Two missiles were also launched in combat configuration with warhead and the targets were neutralised.

ISRO expects to resume with launches in Nov.-Dec.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation expects to resume launch of satellites in a couple of months once its failure analysis committee releases its report. The committee is conducting tests on why the PSLV-C39 mission of August 31 failed to release a back-up navigation satellite into space.

• ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said the committee would release its report "very soon". The launches would be resumed in November or December after necessary steps are taken. He was speaking on the sidelines of an event to mark 25 years of the formation of Antrix Corporation, which markets ISRO’s products and services.

• On the loss of IRNSS-1H in the launch, Mr. Kiran Kumar said the existing fleet of six spacecraft met all required specifications and there was no urgency for a replacement.

• Antrix Corporation had made the PSLV rocket a globally famous and reliable space launch vehicle; it had lifted more than 200 small foreign satellites over years. It could now help Indian industry gain credibility in the $339 billion world space market. The market had evolved fast to challenge established government-run agencies.

The advanced towed artillery gun system (ATAGS)sets new record in range

• The advanced towed artillery gun system (ATAGS), which is being jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the private sector, has set a world record in range by hitting targets at a distance of 48 km.

• During trial firings at PokhranATAGS registered the longest ever distance of 48.074 km, surpassing the maximum ranges of 35-40 km fired by any artillery gun system in this category.

• ATAGS is a 155mm, 52 calibre towed artillery gun being developed in mission mode by DRDO as a part of the Army’s artillery modernisationprogramme. The record was achieved with special ammunition, “high explosive – base bleed” (HE – BB) by the ATAGS variant developed by Kalyani Group.

• The development is being done through a consortium based model, similar to that adopted for the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launch system. It was designed by DRDO’s Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) in Pune.

• In addition, Bharat Forge Limited of Kalyani Group, Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division and Mahindra Defence Naval System are involved in a big way, along with the Ordnance Factory Board. For instance, the barrel and breech mechanism, on both variants of ATAGS, was developed at Kalyani Group.

• The gun has several significant features, including an all-electric drive, high mobility, quick deployability, auxiliary power mode, advanced communication system, and an automated command and control system. It has a six round magazine, instead of a standard three round one. Also, the gun weighs slightly more than normal due to the larger chamber.

• The Army has not inducted any new artillery gun since the Bofors in the 1980s.

::ENVIRONMENT::

Cause of Recurving’ cyclones rains reduced in August across India

• A strange pattern of tropical cyclones (TC) in the Western Pacific appear to be the reason for the drying up of monsoon rains in August across India.

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had predicted normal monsoon rains in August, typically the second most bountiful monsoon month after July.

• During the monsoon months, cyclones in the Western Pacific move westwards towards India and aid rain-bearing systems over the sub-continent. But during some years they ‘recurve’, or start to swing north-east, and do not give as much of a push to the rains as they do in the good monsoon years.

• This re-curving frequently happens during the El Nino years but this time it inexplicably occurred when an El Nino hasn’t yet taken shape.

• El Nino years are those when sea surface temperatures in the east equatorial Pacific rise, and often dampen the monsoon. While several international meteorological agencies had raised concerns about a likely El Nino forming in August or September this year, it didn’t happen.

• In April, the IMD had said that India would get 96% of the normal rainfall during July-September. In August, it updated its forecast to 98%. Since August, however, rainfall across central India and north India was much lower than expected, and as of today, monsoon rains are 6% short of what they should have been for this time of the year.

• Nearly 22% of the country faces drought-like conditions. IMD Director-General K.J. Ramesh said that phenomena such as unfavourable cyclone activity in the Pacific were “transient” and couldn’t be captured in early forecasts.

• These are apparent, at the most, 10 days ahead, and can’t be known, say, like the El Nino, months in advance. However, the monsoon hasn’t withdrawn yet, and we expect heavy rains after September 20

Snow leopard upgraded to ‘vulnerable’ status

• Snow leopard upgraded to ‘vulnerable’ status

• The elusive snow leopard long considered an “endangered” species has been upgraded to “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But experts warned that the new classification does not mean they are safe.

Oldest tree species on earth in danger

• The bristlecone pine tree, famous for its wind-beaten, gnarly limbs and having the longest lifespan on Earth, is losing a race to the top of mountains throughout the Western United States, putting future generations in peril, researchers said.

• Driven by climate change, a cousin of the tree, the limber pine, is leapfrogging up mountainsides, taking root in warmer, more favorable temperatures and leaving little room for the late-coming bristlecone, a study finds.

• Researchers compare the competing tree species to a pair of old men in a slow-motion race up a mountainside taking thousands of years, and climate change is the starting gun.

• The bristlecone pine can live 5,000 years, making it the oldest individually growing organism on the planet.

• Forests of the diminutive bristlecone pines are found in eastern California, Nevada and Utah. They thrive in desolate limestone soil that is inhospitable to most trees. They grow at high elevation, hammered by wind and extreme temperatures.

• The punishing conditions give shape to their twisted limbs. To survive long dry spells, parts of the tree dies and sheds its bark appearing dead, except for small spouts of green pine needles, signaling life.

• Among the oldest and most famous is Methuselah standing in the White Mountains of eastern California. It remains unmarked among its grove, so vandals cannot find it.

In the hope of restoring extinct tortoise

• Scientists in Ecuador’s Galapagos islands are hoping to restore a tortoise species believed extinct since the 1800s.

• The Chelonoidiselephantopus lived on Floreana Island and was captured by seamen in large numbers for food during long journeys across the Pacific.

• The species is thought to have disappeared shortly after Charles Darwin’s celebrated visit to the treasured archipelago.

• But a group of international scientists who collected 1,700 blood samples from tortoises on Isabel Island farther north during a research expedition in 2012 made a surprising discovery – 80 had genetic traces of the lost species.

• This is a species that was considered extinct for 160 years. Researchers with the Galapagos Conservancy and the Galapagos National Park are now trying to restore the species by selecting 20 specimens with higher amounts of the Floreana tortoise in its DNA to reproduce.

• Scientists believe sailors who caught Floreana tortoises for food sometimes dropped them off on Isabel Island in order to lighten a ship’s load before crossing the ocean. Isabel Island was typically the last stop before setting sail.

• The scientists travelling to Isabel Island five years ago didn’t originally set out to research the Floreana species and were surprised when their samples revealed such high quantities of the extinct tortoise’s DNA.

• The 20 tortoises identified as having the highest amounts of Floreana DNA have been placed in corrals containing three females and two males each in hopes of one day repopulating the island with close copies of the extinct species.

Ig Nobel

• Scientists who discovered that old men really do have big ears, that playing the didgeridoo helps relieve sleep apnea and that handling crocodiles can influence gambling decisions are among this year’s recipients of the Ig Nobel, the prize for absurd scientific achievement.

• The 27th annual awards were announced at Harvard University. The ceremony featured a traditional barrage of paper airplanes, a world premiere opera and real Nobel laureates handing out the 10 prizes.

• The awards are sponsored by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research , the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.

• This year’s winners who each received $10 trillion cash prizes in virtually worthless Zimbabwean money also included scientists who used fluid dynamics to determine whether cats are solid or liquid; researchers who tried to figure out why some people are disgusted by cheese; and psychologists who found that many identical twins cannot tell themselves apart in visual images. When he asked why old men have such big ears, half his colleagues agreed with his observation; the others scoffed.

• The economics prize went to a pair of Australians who found that if you want to limit your gambling losses, don’t have a close encounter with a crocodile.

• Matthew Rockloff, head of the Population Research Laboratory at Central Queensland University in Bundaberg, and research assistant Nancy Greer, plunked a saltwater crocodile its mouth safely taped into the arms of people about to gamble and watched what happened.

• The excitement caused by handling a dangerous reptile caused people with pre-existing problems to “gamble higher amounts, which over the long term will lead to greater gambling losses.

Skin patch that can melt fat in mice could treat obesity and diabetes in people

• U.S. researchers have developed a skin patch that can melt fat in mice, and future tests will reveal whether it could treat obesity and diabetes in people.

• The patch uses nanotechnology to raise the body’s metabolism and transform energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat, according to the report in ACS Nano , a publication of the American Chemical Society.

• After four weeks, mice saw a 20% reduction in body fat where the patch was applied.

• What’s much more important is that patch may provide a safe and effective means of treating obesity and related metabolic disorders such as diabetes.

• Researchers have been searching for a way to transform white fat into brown fat, which is more common in newborns and protects the body from cold temperatures.

• Drugs are available to promote this process, called browning, but they must be given as pills or injections, which exposes the body to side effects such as stomach upset, weight gain and bone fractures.

• But the patch appeared to deliver the drugs directly to the fat tissue, avoiding these complications in rodents.

• The drugs were encased in nanoparticles, each about 250 nanometres in diameter, 400 times tinier than a human hair.

• These nanoparticles were loaded into a finger-tip sized skin patch containing dozens of microscopic needles that pierced the skin.

• The drugs used were rosiglitazone (Avandia) and a beta-adrenergic receptor agonist (CL 316243) that works well in mice but not in humans, said the report.

• Patches were applied to the mice’s abdomens, and were replaced every three days for a total of four weeks.

• Mice that were treated with either of the two drugs showed 20% less fat in the affected area than mice given two empty patches.

• Treated mice “also had significantly lower fasting blood glucose levels than untreated mice.”

::ECONOMY::

Forex reserves hit $400 billion

• The country’s foreign exchange reserves have touched $400 billion for the first time. Four years after the rupee hit a historic low, the RBI’s forex kitty has swelled by more than $125 billion. The reserves act as a buffer to be used in challenging times.

• Data showed foreign exchange reserves rose by $2.6 billion from the previous week to $400.7 billion in the week ended September 8. Foreign currency assets mainly contributed to the increase in the period.

Rupee, gold widen current account deficit

• A stronger rupee, in addition to gold imports before the Goods and Services Tax regime kicked in, has led to a sharp widening of the current account deficit (CAD) to $14.3 billion in the April-June period, which was 2.4% of the GDP. In the year earlier period, the CAD was $0.4 billion, which was 0.1% of GDP.

• The current account deficit was $3.4 billion or 0.6% of GDP, in the January-March period. According to latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India, the widening of the CAD on a year-on-year basis was primarily on account of a higher trade deficit ($41.2 billion) brought about by a larger increase in merchandise imports relative to exports.

• The lagged impact of the rupee appreciation was partly responsible for a faster rise in non-oil non-gold imports relative to exports, bloating the” goods trade deficit.

Tata Sons plans to go private

• Close to a year after Tata Sons ousted Cyrus Mistry as chairman, the group’s holding company will seek shareholders’ approval at the AGM on September 21 to amend the Articles of Association (AoA) to transform from a public limited company to a private one.

• The move has drawn strong opposition from the ShapoorjiPallonji Group investment firms of Mr. Mistry’s family, which together own 18.4% in Tata Sons and have already filed a lawsuit at the National Company Law Tribunal alleging oppression of ‘minority shareholders’.

• The proposal to convert Tata Sons from a public company to a private company constitutes yet another act of oppression of the minority shareholders of Tata Sons at the hands of the majority shareholders; the real motive behind convening the proposed AGM is malafide and for an ulterior purpose and the proposed resolutions are not in the interests of Tata Sons as a whole or at all,” Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd., one of the investment firms, wrote in a letter addressed to the Tata Sons board and made available to The Hindu.

• Taking a public company private requires the approval of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

External debt decline 2.7% to $471.9 bn as NRI deposits fall

• Total external debt for the financial year 2016-17 stood at $471.9 billion, declining 2.7% from the previous year’s level, according to official figures released.

• India’s external debt stock stood at $471.9 billion at end-March 2017, decreasing by $13.1 billion (2.7%) over the level at end-March 2016,the government said in a release.

• The decline in external debt was due to the decrease in long-term debt particularly NRI deposits and commercial borrowings.

• At end-March 2017, long-term external debt was $383.9 billion, showing a decrease of 4.4% over the level at end-March 2016.

• Long-term external debt accounted for 81.4% of total external debt... as compared to 82.8% at end-March 2016.

• Short-term external debt increased by 5.5% to $88 billion as of the end of March 2017. This, the release said, was due to the increase in trade related credits.

• An inter-country comparison based on ‘International Debt Statistics 2017’ of the World Bank, which presents the debt data for 2015, shows that India continues to be among the less vulnerable countries with its external debt indicators comparing well with other indebted developing countries.

• The ratio of India’s external debt stock to gross national income at 23.4% was the fifth lowest and in terms of the cover provided by foreign exchange reserves to external debt, India’s position was sixth highest at 69.7% in 2015.

After 5-month slowdown exports climb 10.3%

• India’s merchandise exports grew 10.3% year-on-year to $23.8 billion in August, reversing a declining trend witnessed for five straight months, data released by the Commerce Ministry showed. The jump in shipments was driven mainly by engineering goods, petroleum products and chemicals as well as an improvement in demand in overseas markets.

• However, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said it was worried about future growth as the order booking position from October was not encouraging — owing to rising global uncertainties, rupee volatility and challenges on the domestic front including those stemming from the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

• While 26 out of 30 major product groups were in positive growth territory in August, labour intensive sectors such as gems and jewellery, leather, apparel and handicraft either posted negative growth or modest growth, which is a worrisome sign, said G. K. Gupta, president of FIEO, the apex body for the country’s exporters.

• Meanwhile, goods imports grew 21.02% during August to $35.46 billion. This resulted in the trade deficit widening to $11.6 billion, from $7.7 billion in August 2016. However, the shortfall was lower than the $11.45 billion seen in July.

• In August 2017, the major commodity groups of exports showing positive growth over the corresponding month of last year were — engineering goods (19.53%), petroleum products (36.56%), organic and inorganic chemicals (32.41%), drugs and pharmaceuticals (4.21%), and ready-made garments of all textiles (0.56%). Non-petroleum and non gems & jewelry exports rose 14.47% to $17.74 billion, the Commerce Ministry said.

• Major commodity group of imports showing high growth in August 2017 were — petroleum, crude & products (14.22%), electronic goods (27.44%), machinery, electrical & non-electrical (18.35%), gold (68.90%) and pearls, precious & semi-precious stones (30.88%). Oil imports during August jumped 14.22% to $7.75 billion, while non-oil imports during the month rose 23.07% to $27.7 billion.

Discussion on Code on Industrial Relations Bill

• Labour Ministry to discuss five proposals in the Code on Industrial Relations Bill with trade unions

• Central trade unions continue to oppose the government’s plans to ease retrenchment norms and to restrict trade union membership under the Industrial Disputes Act, reiterating their stand at a meeting held by new Labour and Employment Minister SantoshGangwar to discuss the contentious proposals.

• A Group of Ministers on labour reforms led by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked the Labour Ministry to discuss five contentious proposals in the Code on Industrial Relations Bill with central trade unions.

• Those included allowing bigger companies to retrench workers without the government’s permission, increasing the severance pay by three times, restricting outsiders’ role in trade union leadership, changing the definition of ‘workers’ and procedure for recognition of trade unions.

• The meeting on the proposed Industrial Relations Code was Mr. Gangwar’s first meeting with representatives from ten central trade unions after taking charge recently.

• The government should discuss the industrial relations Bill in full detail. It should not interfere [with] the trade union composition and [not] allow lesser factories to retrench workers without the government’s nod.

• With the Centre’s plans to amend the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 taking time, States are going ahead with their own labour law changes to ease retrenchment norms in a bid to attract business locally with Assam joining the race recently.

• Since labour is a concurrent subject, the Assam Assembly passed amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act to allow companies with a staff of up to 300 to retrench workers without government permission, up from the present requirement of up to 100 workers – giving industries with large workforce more flexibility in retrenchment. However, the Assam government’s approved Bill will need the Centre’s nod to become a law.

• The Central government has proposed similar provisions in the Code on Industrial Relations Bill. The proposed Bill will combine the Trade Unions Act, 1926, the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, into a single code.

• Till date, apart from Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand have allowed larger firms to retrench workers without seeking its permission by bringing their own amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act.

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